Daily Briefing: Singapore venture capitalist's returns from Spotify hit 300%; Temasek joins US$114m fund in meatless burger firm

And here’s why some sports fans are calling to preserve Farrer Park.

From Deal Street Asia:

Temasek Holdings co-led a US$114m convertible note financing round in Impossible Foods, a California-based startup that makes plant-based burgers that taste like beef. This brought the firm’s total funding to US$400m.

“Impossible Foods announced the successful closing of the investment, co-led by Shanghai- and Hong Kong-based private equity firm Sailing Capital, as it plans to launch its Impossible Burger in Asia.

‘Asia drives 44% of the world’s demand for meat, and the rate of consumption is growing faster than any other region,’ Impossible Foods said in a statement.

Its meatless burgers are expected to land on the menus of Asia’s restaurants sometime this year. In an interview with Fortune in December 2017, CEO Pat Brown said Asia is a ‘high priority’ because of the continent’s population size and its growth of demand.”

Read more here.

From iCompareLoan via Yahoo! Finance:

Farrer Park, a location synonymous with local sports since the 1930s, is set to be taken down to make way for a residential development. Sport Singapore, which is leasing the land, has to demolish the boxing gym, field, and swimming complex before returning it to the state by 2020.

“Farrer Park is a subzone of the Rochor planning area in the Central Region of Singapore, bounded by Serangoon Road, Rangoon Road, Race Course Road, Northumberland Road, Tekka Lane and Bukit Timah Road. Farrer Park remained a favourite sporting venue for decades, with the Sports House becoming the headquarters of the National Sports Promotion Board from 1971 to 1973. Several other sports associations also occupied Sports House until 1985 when it was destroyed by a fire.

The fire was a turning point for Farrer Park as many of the sports associations which were housed there relocated to National Stadium and Jalan Besar Stadium, and Sports House was never rebuilt. Soon after, Farrer Park’s popularity as a premiere sports hub took a turn for the worse.”

Read more here.

From Deal Street Asia:

Singapore-based venture capital firm K2 chief Ozi Amanat said he and his company were one of the winners in the trading debut of music-streaming service Spotify. He said he has “tens of millions” in Spotify stock, and that Spotify’s strong listing gave him a 300% return on the investment.

“‘We are very long-term bullish on Spotify, and they are only scratching the surface in terms of Asia subscribers. Their potential is huge. We are prudent investors – we will definitely book profits and return capital to K2’s investors. Our investors are getting profitable returns on a tech investment and that is a good story for the ecosystem here,’ Amanat told this portal.

K2’s first fund made investments in 15 companies, including several tech unicorns including Uber Technologies, Spotify, Magic Leap, AirBNB, Twilio and Palantir.”

Read more here.